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According to a blog post, WebGPU can let developers achieve the same level of graphics they can now with far less code and provides “more than three times improvements in machine learning model inferences.” That last one is a real kicker — improved machine learning performance was interesting in 2021, when the feature was added to Chrome on an experimental basis, but now that we’re in the age of generative AIs and large language models, it could be even more of a boon.

From Google is rolling out WebGPU tech for next-gen gaming in your browser – The Verge.

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The European Savings and Retail Banking Group (ESBG) have published their views on the Digital Euro.

Therefore, although supportive of the Digital Euro, we are of the opinion that many legitimate and reasonable questions still need to be answered and a successful implementation needs to properly address the above concerns. In order to achieve this, we argue for significantly lower maximum caps on holdings. For the distributors of the Digital Euro, a long-term sustainable business model will be required. And if the Digital Euro will be positioned as a retail payments product, it should not use its privileged position as a public-money funded product by mandatory acceptance requirements that distort the competitive retail payments market.

From A Digital Euro: what does it mean for savings and retail banks? – WSBI ESBG.

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What ChatGPT said was correct in every way, except for the facts

From (3) What ChatGPT said was correct in every way, except for the facts | LinkedIn.

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Sam Altman sees GPT-4 going rogue in the hands of humans who use its power for evil.

‘I’m particularly worried that these models could be used for large-scale disinformation,’ Altman told ABC NEWS.

‘Now that they’re getting better at writing computer code, [they] could be used for offensive cyberattacks.’

From ChatGPT CEO admits he is ‘scared’ the bot could be used for ‘large-scale disinformation’ | Daily Mail Online.

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So what did this new study find? The chance of an incorrect match is now 1 in 6,000 — sizeably lower than the 1 in 1,000 seen in the first trials. It’s a significant improvement that means the Met is less likely to accidentally flag innocent people while using LFR.

From (1) More facial recognition is coming to London – London Spy.

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The UK financial and advertising regulators have warned social media influencers of the risks of promoting “get-rich-quick schemes” such as cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens to their followers.

From UK regulators warn influencers of risks of promoting NFTs and cryptocurrencies | Social media | The Guardian.

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The International Monetary Fund talk about digital public infrastructure (DPI) built up from digital identity, the payments system and a data exchange layer. Such a DPI has the potential to support the transformation of the economy and support inclusive growth. They highlight the particular example of India’s foundational DPI, the so-called “India Stack”, and show how it has been harnessed to foster innovation and competition, boost financial inclusion and improve government revenue collection. India’s DPI contains powerful lessons for other countries embarking on digital transformation, in particular a design approach that focuses on shared building blocks and supporting innovation across the ecosystem through APIs.

So where are we in the UK now? We don’t have digital identity, we do have a payments system (albeit based on last-generation technology) and we don’t have a data exchange layer. What would it take for us to reach Indian levels of innovation?

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As it pertains to a consumer’s income level, debit cards and cash represent more than half of the total amount spent by low-income consumers for all retail purchases, while middle- and high-income consumers are heavy credit card users, paying more than one-third of their retail expenses with this payment method.

From 38% of Consumers Used Debit for Their Last in-Store Purchase | PYMNTS.com:

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An interagency task force whose job would be to support “reliable, interoperable digital identity verification in the public and private sectors” could be established by the US federal government after a Senate committee vote.

The legislation behind the task force, known as the Improving Digital Identity Act, was passed by the US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last week in a vote of 11-1. It now moves on to the full Senate for debate.

The legislation notes that there is no easy, affordable method for government agencies and businesses to verify whether an individual is who they purport to be online, allowing cyber criminals to more easily access personal data.

“The inadequacy of current digital identity solutions degrades security and privacy for all people in the United States, and next generation solutions are needed that improve security, privacy, equity, and accessibility,” the bill reads.

It says the government is “uniquely positioned to deliver critical components that address deficiencies in the digital identity infrastructure of the United States and augment private sector digital identity and authentication solutions”.

From US digital identity bill passes through to Senate:

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The bill was introduced in response to a call from the bipartisan Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity for federal agencies to act as “an authoritative source to validate identity attributes” across the digital ID market. If it is passed, an Improving Digital Identity Task Force would be established to help ensure citizens’ privacy and security.

From US digital identity bill passes through to Senate:

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Something strange has happened in recent weeks, with FedNow and CBDC being conflated and misunderstood in such a way as to have now entered the public consciousness. 

Money And Cash

Two of the  potential U.S. presidential candidates for next year have accused the Fed of planning to control American’s behaviour through new technology. The Florida Governor Mr. Ron DeSantis alleged that a U.S. CBDC would let the government block transactions like buying a rifle (although they would presumably still be allowed to buy rifles using Digital Dollars issued by offshore third-parties) and wants to outlaw the use of a U.S. CBDC in his state. Meanwhile, Robert Kennedy Jr. (who is challenging Joe Biden for the Democrat nomination for President) posted on Twitter that “The Fed just announced it will introduce its ‘FedNow’ Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in July”. He also went on to say that this will “grease the slippery slope” to tyranny. I am not certain of Mr. Kennedy’s expertise in electronic payment systems, but he has millions of followers on social media who must have read his words “The Fed will initially limit its CBDC to interbank transactions” and assumed he knew what he was talking about.

(Mr. Kennedy is well-known for having views somewhat at odds with mainstream thinking. He has been publishing vaccine conspiracy theories for many years and during the recent pandemic he suggested that Microsoft founder Bill Gates was working with “big pharma” to profit from the vaccine rollout. Has also thinks that 5G mobile networks are being installed to “to harvest our data and control our behaviour”.)

The currently non-existent FedCoin (or whatever a future U.S. CBDC might be called) and the soon-existent FedNow are, it has to be said, completely different and completely unconnected systems. FedNow is am instant payment network of the kind that has existed in most other countries for many years. FedCoin, were it ever to come into existence, is a form of digital currency that some other countries are likely to introduce in the future. But they are entirely unrelated. Chalk and cheese, apples and oranges, 

Conspiracy

I wanted to understand why FedNow and CBDC had been conflated and try to find the origin of the misunderstanding so I had a look around the web. It turns out that there are a number of conspiracy theories that bring them together. I had a quick look at a few sites and the actual theories vary, but I can summarise them for you this way: The Federal Reserve, under the control of their Illuminati puppetmasters, are exploiting quantum technology from Area 51 to monitor the spending of vaccinated people who are tracked through 5G masts that connect with the chips that were injected into them by the World Economic Forum in order to stop them from buying too much gasoline. Or something like that.

(It is interesting, by the way, to see how conspiracy theories evolve with technology. Our ancestors thought that goblins and trolls were responsible for their misfortunes, the Victorians were convinced that there were fairies at the bottom of their gardens and it wasn’t until after the Second World War that UFOs began their visits to the American Midwest. One of my all time favourite books is “The Air Loom Gang” by Mike Jay, which William Gibson called ”One of the greatest books you’ve never read”. It tells the true story of James Tilly Matthews, a patient detained in Bedlam in the early 19th century. Matthews believed that gangs of Jacobin revolutionaries using the eponymous machine — which combined developments in chemistry and mesmerism — to send mind control rays in to his brain and the brains of leading politicians. I cannot urge you strongly enough to read this wonderful book, republished in the United States as “The Influencing Machine”. Had Matthews been born a couple of hundred years previously, he would have undoubtedly blamed witches for his mental state, had he been born a couple of hundred years later he would probably blame his abduction by aliens.)

This may seem weird to many of us, but Mr. Kennedy is not alone in thinking that hidden forces are a work here. A recent survey showed that 13 per cent of Americans believe that Mr. Gates was behind COVID and an astonishing one in six think that the virus was a smokescreen for installing tracking devices in human beings.